The NBA Finals And The Stanley Cup

With the NBA Finals starting in 2 day's time, excitement is building up . Especially with the good news about how well the NBA is doing based on TV ratings. . That is in US though. For basketball fanatics living in hockey mad Canada , the news about the coming NBA Finals is mild. Not exactly a non event but coming at about the same time as the Stanley Cup and the World Cup , the NBA Finals is not exactly must see TV . Recently , a TV sports show asked its viewers what they will watch this month of June a) the Stanley Cup b) the World Cup c) the NBA Finals d) MLB -Blu Jays .The NBA Finals came in a distant 3rd. A little better than baseball which is only at its regular season. Hockey was way ahead at no.1 . It was not always like that. When Vince was still half man - half amazing, the TV ratings for the Raptors games in Canada were sky high .Especially the 2nd round match between the Raptors and the Sixers. VC vs. AI as shown in the photo. Sometimes, the ratings surpassed hockey. Attendance at ACC was great.' Basketball will overtake hockey as the no.1 sports in Canada in a few years time ' bragged Paul Jones of the Raptors radio team.

Then VC became half man period . The decline of Raptors basketball began. I say Raptors basketball because basketball as a sports in Canada is continually growing according to the latest survey . The growth is in the age bracket that the advertisers target. The gap between hockey and basketball is narrowing said the same survey. As for basketball overtaking hockey like Jonsie predicted , I doubt it will happen. The only that will happen is 1) if Canada become a 3rd world country . Those gaddam' hockey equiptments are costly . 2) or Al Gore's prediction as depicted in his film An Inconvenient Truth, holds true. You cannot swim and play hockey at the same time !

On the contrary , hockey south of the border in a state of funk. The 1st game of the Stanley Cup this year was a non event to many Americans. ' The Stanley Cup was behind women softball last night ' said Michael Wilbon of Pardon The Interruption last Tuesday. ' It should not be happening to the so called 4th major sports in N. America ' added Wilbon . He is not alone in this observation. Even host/ comedian , Jimmy Kimmel , last night said the same thing. His show conducted a street interview involving 2 men and asked them what teams are playing in this year's Stanley Cup. The 1st interviewee said the New York Rangers while the other guy was totally clueless.The sportswriters in Canada recognized the problem that the new NHL faces especially in US.. ' The NHL should promote their stars like Sidney Crosby the way the NBA promotes Lebron James , DWade , Kobe and before them, MJ ' said a writer from Hockey News on the sports sho, The Grille Room. Easier said than done. The new NHL was dropped by ESPN. The games are now carried by OLN . ' Its very hard to find OLN among hundreds of channels ' complained one other writer . He's right. What is OLN by the way ? Only Losers Network !